Saturday, August 7, 2010

As you might be aware, Google Chrome’s Incognito mode is a private browsing mode that instructs the web browser not to record any information of site visits and history during the browsing session. The Incognito mode allows users to maintain privacy on computers that are shared by multiple users, like the living room PC.

The Incognito mode can be started at any time by clicking on the browser’s wrench icon in the toolbar and choosing “New Incognito window”. Alternatively, you can start the browser in the Incognito mode by using the Incognito startup switch in the programs’ shortcut path.

Another option to start Incognito mode automatically comes by the way of a new extension named Autonito. With Autonito you can make Chrome automatically enable the Incognito mode whenever you open pages from specific domains. Update: Autonito is no longer available. Try Ghost Incognito instead.

Using Autonito is a no-brainer. After installation, open the extension settings page, click on Options under Autonito and add the domain names you wish to open in Incognito.

The extension has a few issues with cookies as reported by a user and discussed by Martin. Apparently, the extension although switching to the Incognito mode, does not prevent the browser from storing cookies for the added sites. The workaround to this problem is manually disabling cookies for these domains.

To do that click on the Tools icon in the toolbar and choose Options. Open “Under the hood” tab and click on Content Settings. Then click on Exceptions and add the domain names to block.